Strawberries

Seeing that it is strawberry picking season I thought I would share some of my favorite vintage strawberry collectibles. I have always been drawn to strawberry prints and red and white.

Hazel Atlas Milk Glass Strawberry Jam Jar - This was also made in an apple. (Of course I own that too!)  My mom had one of these when I was growing up and she actually served jelly out of it on the table.

Strawberry motif vintage table cloth.

Strawberry apron. Not sure how functional this one is :) - but it is super cute. Sheer material with embroidered strawberries.

 

Tin bread box. It is a little banged up and rusty but I love it anyway. We use this on our kitchen counter for loaves of bread.

I am including these too. Wouldn't these be great to serve sliced strawberries? Top pic is a Pyrex hostess set, bottom pic is a pink plastic melamine/melmac set.

I love vintage berries!
KayteeJane

Chalkboard Plant Markers

I planted a garden this year for the first time in many years. I'm a little late in getting it done, but no matter. I am hoping that come August I will have a bounty of homegrown veggies. I made some garden markers using paint sticks and chalkboard paint. It is super simple to do and inexpensive too. Here are the steps.

You will need some paint stirring sticks, chalkboard paint & chalk. I got my sticks from our local Ace Hardware for free.

I used a quart of Chalkboard Paint made by Rustoleum and applied it with a paint spraying gun. If you don't want to do that just brush it or buy chalkboard spray paint.


To write on the painted sticks I used a chalk marker that I bought at Michaels. They are available in white and also colors. I figured that the lettering would hold up better in the rain with a marker than with traditional dust chalk. Use whatever you have on hand.

Here are the sticks after painting and lettering.

Here they are in the garden.

I like how they turned out.



KayteeJane

Pillow Talk

"It's summertime and the livin' is easy". Fall back on a comfy pillow and chair, put up your feet and rest awhile. Cover up with a quilt and close your eyes. Go ahead and be lazy. You're allowed when you are here.

Sweet Dreams...
All pillows handmade from quilts, seed sacks, embroidered linens, chenille bedspreads and other vintage materials.

KayteeJane

Walking Saved My Life

Even though this blog is mostly about collecting and my home, I wanted to post today about a big change I have made in my life that has helped me tremendously. It is walking - plain and simple.

Over the past year I have struggled with depression. I would frequently find myself sitting on the couch watching reality shows or HGTV a little more often than is probably healthy. In one hand I would have a to-do list a mile long and in the other hand the TV remote. Fear, and doubt would cloud my resolve to tackle some of the things on my list. I was pretty much just getting by. One day I happened to call a friend on the phone and she asked me to come with her on a walk. I immediately said "no" - too much to get done today! She persisted - telling me that she herself had started walking regularly and that as a result of this small investment of time each morning she was now able to do so much more during the day than she normally had before committing to walk. I agreed and went with her. We walked 2+ miles that day. When I got home I felt SO MUCH BETTER! I decided to commit to walking 2 miles every day for 5 or 6 days a week - without fail.

I'm using a free app on my iphone Map My Walk. I bring my phone and just start walking. The app notifies me when I reach a mile, my pace, etc. After 2 miles I head home. I don't really have a plan or anything. I just walk. I look around. I pray in my head. I listen to the quiet. I listen to praise music on Pandora too if I feel like it. When I get home I am tired and out of breath but I feel great. It has cleared the cobwebs out. I feel better - like I can be creative again and make stuff. That life is good. That I can take each day at a time and get by. I am also leaning on My Heavenly Father right now. Instead of feeling guilty each day that I'm not reading my bible I am using my walking time to pray. Sometimes I just say "Lord, use me today, teach me your ways, may your strength be made perfect in my weakness". It is enough.

Today I spotted these things and paused briefly to snap a pic.

And Honeysuckle - lots of yellow honeysuckle - summer's perfume! It smells so good. It reminds me of my childhood.

I wish I could bottle that stuff. The only perfume I have smelled that comes close is Le Chèvrefeuille by Annick Goutal.

Of course the French would get it right :) Annik Goutal makes some amazing perfumes! If you have never heard of them before search them out on Google.

I'm not a doctor or health professional. I'm just telling you about something that makes me happy and is helping my well being. I'm thankful for friends who step in and care about you - that show up at just the right time, just when you need it. Sometimes you listen to what they are saying and other times you don't. I'm glad that this time I actually listened and then did something.

God Bless,
KayteeJane

Hannah's "new" dresser

I recently posted about my daughter Hannah's bedroom redo and how I was selling her lovely "shabby sweet" furniture. Read the original post HERE.  I have since sold the furniture off to new homes and her room has been redone. She originally wanted IKEA furniture to replace the pieces I sold. We were planning on buying her something from there but as luck would have it hubby stumbled upon an old dresser in someone's trash and put it in the back of his truck.  Old habits die hard around here. Once a trash picker, always a trash picker. I wish I would have gotten a "before" picture of it. (I am terrible at remembering to do that). The dresser was pretty darn ugly. Visualize a little boy's room circa 1960. There was even a Conestoga Wagon made of wood glued to the front of one of the drawers! Ugly aside -the dresser is SOLID WOOD - which you can't say about IKEA stuff - so we decided to take a chance and paint it. This picture shows how it looked right before painting (without the drawers). I took a pic of the Conestoga Wagon (shown below) just to prove that it actually exsisted!

Hubby uses a paint sprayer now to paint all of our projects. The end result looks very professional - and it is much quicker and easier to do. I would recommend painting this way to anyone who paints furniture. Here are some pictures in process. Paint - Clark & Kensington from Ace Hardware

Finished Dresser - We added an old mirror that was also found in the trash previously. I love the bright aqua she chose. I think it looks great against the green bedroom walls. This is a small-sized dresser, which is perfect for an 8 year old. The best part is the final price tag - $15 for paint and $30 for knobs. Much cheaper than buying brand new furniture. Plus, if she beats it up, spills on it or writes on it (which she has been known to do) I won't be as upset as I would normally be if I had spent $250 +.

 

(dresser knobs from Target)

Here are some pictures of the rest of the bedroom.

Chalkboard Wall. I painted one wall in each of my daughter's bedrooms in chalkboard paint. It took 2 coats to cover the wall. The girls enjoy writing notes to each other on their walls and Hannah enjoys playing school. The only down side is it does create a lot of chalk dust on the floor. We have hardwood floors in the bedrooms so I'm not too worried about it because it is an easy clean up. Not sure how I would feel with carpeting.

 

I snuck a little vintage in by using an old bedspread as a dust ruffle.

The final result is a very bright & cheery room. I love how it turned out. All furniture is second-hand, thrifted or found.

KayteeJane

Baby Stuff

I have a soft spot in my heart for vintage baby items from the 1950's & 1960's. Not sure why except that I find the stuff to be so charming. Again I credit my friend Martha S. for inspiring me to collect these items. I recall an article many moons ago in one of her mags about vintage baby hangers and Myercord decals for the nursery and on and on and the rest is history. I believe at the time I might have been pregnant with my first baby and looking for nursery inspiration -  so I didn't really need much encouragement.

I bought these at that time to decorate the nursery with. I think they came from ebay. There were 3 of them when I first bought them. Since then one broke and now I only have 2. Since my "baby" is now 13 and isn't into these AT ALL - they have been hanging out on my dresser looking cute. Recently I decided to part with them and they are for sale in my etsy shop. It is hard to say goodbye to some of this stuff because it reminds me of when I was a new mom. I guess that is why I held on to them for so long. Oh well...time moves on.

This was also purchased for Gaby's nursery decor. I remember buying this at an antique store. It is nice for holding cotton balls. It too is for sale right now.

 

Just this past weekend I bought this beauty at a yard sale. I bought it specifically to resell it. The lady I bought it from said it was her husband's set when he was a baby 50+ years ago. It is in mint condition. I believe the pieces shown above were probably originally part of sets just like this one. I listed it on ebay. I am hoping someone who loves vintage style like I do will buy it for their baby's nursery. You won't find anything like this at Babies R Us.

I am also parting with this vintage baby book. It was never used so the pages are like new. It is for sale on etsy. The graphics are so cute. I love the baby on the cover and her rosy cheeks.

What can I say? I am just drawn to the vintage styles and things of the past. There is just something about older things that I love. I still have some other cute baby things that I haven't parted with yet. Maybe I will get around to showing them at some point.

If you are interested in purchasing anything shown here you can click HERE FOR ETSY or HERE FOR EBAY.

Thanks for visiting and allowing me to share my collection.

KayteeJane